The $100 million announced in the budget for a venture capital fund is money that has been pinched from other sectors of the economy, National's Research Science & Technology Spokesperson Maurice Williamson said today.

"$50 million is coming straight off the balance sheets of Crown Research Institutes and the other $50 million is coming from SOEs.

"You have to admire the Minister's chutzpah. After all the hype about the importance of the knowledge economy and the need for economic transformation, its not surprising that he hasn't highlighted this rather major feature of the so-called 'fund'.

"The only new money in research & science spending is the grand sum of $11.6 million. This paltry amount is the lowest increase in years and a clear indicator of the Government's real position on the knowledge economy," Mr Williamson said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>